(3 months later)

Young Mi was pleasantly surprised when Yunho wanted to live as simply as possible for the next 3 years in Massachusetts, so much so that they were staying in a rented 700 plus square foot apartment in Chauncy Street, which was extremely convenient for Yunho to get to school. Also, they didn’t own any form of transport except for a bicycle, which was deployed by Young Mi only when she had to get the week’s groceries.

The couple had spent the first few days as tourists venturing around the city to take note of where to get their daily necessities and shopped around for some furniture for their new ‘home’. Young Mi practically chose everything, for Yunho was adamant that he would only make the apartment look dead. She had to unfortunately agree with him on this one.

Yunho was dragged into a pet shop the following week when Young Mi said that she had to get a Betta (fighting fish). Knowing full well that she had 5 of them back home, there was no way he could say no without going home sporting a black eye.

“I never had a cellophane Betta before!” Young Mi gushed excitedly on the bus back to the apartment.

“A what?” Yunho asked.

“Oh, a cellophane Betta is one that has no colour at all.” She explained, still studying her fish like as if it was the most wondrous thing in the world.

“I thought you always had a strong penchant for colours,” Yunho commented.

“If you hadn’t noticed so far, our apartment’s pretty colourful you know? So I thought this fish shouldn't be added into your already long list of eyesores.” Young Mi smiled.

“Ahh, how nice of you,” Yunho replied flatly.

Young Mi feigned a hurt look on her face.

When they got back to the apartment, Young Mi got to work on preparing the perfect fish home for her new Betta while Yunho continued reading his book on complex analysis in the livingroom.

“School’s starting next week right?” Young Mi placed the fish bowl on the window still by the dining room.

Yunho nodded wordlessly.

“Excited?” Young Mi crashed onto the couch beside him.

“Very much.”

“Ooo, you’re finally looking forward to something. That’s wonderful to hear.”

“I feel likewise.” Yunho closed his book and placed it on his lap with a smile on his face, “My heart feels lighter now.”

Young Mi smiled too, “Good for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Eh? Why?” She looked confused.

“You and Jaejoong had been constantly telling me to follow my heart…so…”

“You’re welcome.” She gave his arm a light squeeze, “I’ll just go take a nap now so I won’t disturb you while you study.”

“It’s just light reading.” Yunho stated.

“You call-” Young Mi grabbed the book and flipped to a random page and started reading off from it, “A point z0 is a singular point of a function f if f not analytic at z0, but is analytic at some point of each neighborhood of z0. A singular point z0 of f is said to be isolated if there is a neighborhood of z0 which contains no singular points of f save z0. In other words, f is analytic on some region 0 < |z ? z0| < P light reading!?”

“Wow, you can read the symbols?” Yunho raised a brow.

“OH MY GAWD! DID I!? I JUST DID, DIDN’T I!?” Young Mi began laughing hysterically, and Yunho could only shake his head at her outburst. 

Young Mi had insisted on making dinner, so Yunho left the kitchen rather dejectedly because he was sure it would be another culinary disaster.

“Ta-dah!” She presented him a steaming hot bowl of what looked like kongguksu.

Yunho gulped in apprehension, “Before I eat this, I just want to tell you that kongguksu is supposed to be a cold noodle dish.”

“Well, I know, but…we’re overseas…and the stuff in the Asian Mart could have been ancient stock, so I thought it would be better not to serve it cold…you know, heating it might kill some harmful virus and what not…” Young Mi started blabbering.

Yunho let out an uncertain laugh, “Good thing the school semester starts next week. And Young Mi, since you think it’s pretty dangerous to shop at Asian marts, then please don’t go there ever again.”

“Okay…” Young Mi fled in embarrassment.

‘Oh…’ Yunho thought when he took in the first mouthful of noodles, ‘It tastes…crappy.’

Yunho sneakily retrieved his ‘food rescue kit’ from under his bed and started adding in soy sauce and chilli paste to mask the horrendous taste of the dish before him.

“How was it?” Young Mi asked with a small voice when Yunho was done with dinner and was currently washing the dishes.

“Good try.” Yunho replied.

“So…it was bad?”

“Not bad.” Yunho answered and in his head added, ‘It was dreadful.’

“So should I keep-”

“Your forte is pancakes,” Yunho cut in to save his poor life, “So maybe you could look into specialising in breakfast making?”

Young Mi beamed, “Okay!”

‘You are seriously growing soft.’ Yunho admonished himself in his head while exiting the kitchen, ‘Since when were you afraid of making people cry?’

As soon as Yunho was done with his entry, he looked up and chuckled lightly when he noticed Young Mi sitting across him at the dining table smiling at him.

“What?” Yunho asked.

“Just staring at you.”

“The whole time?”

“Yeah, while you wrote in your diary.”

“It’s not a diary…” Yunho fought against rolling his eyes.

“Oh? But I was about to disturb you about it, damnnnnn,” Young Mi pouted.

“Too bad then,” Yunho stuffed the book into his bag which was on the seat beside him.

“I know you will kill me for saying this, but you seem happier ever since school began.” Young Mi beamed.

“Thanks,” Yunho muttered as started up his laptop.

“But I noticed that you have been sleeping very little, so…yeah.” Young Mi didn’t want to come off as a nag so she was hoping that by bringing it up, he would take note of it. 

“Thank you for your concern, but I have a thesis due in 2 days so I have to forgo the luxury of sleeping.” Yunho replied.

“Oh…okay. So about dinner…”

Yunho looked up, “I know I haven’t been talking to you much lately, so let’s dine at Border Café later? To be honest, I’ve developed quite a liking to the cajun fries served there.”

Young Mi jumped out of her seat and punched the air, “You’re the best Yunho! I’ll just buzz off now before you call me a nuisance.” And with that, she almost tripped on the leg of the chair but managed to return to her bedroom in one piece.

Mirae: Haoooooooooo, hao are you?

Hao: What…

Mirae: Sorry for making fun of your name, but I just couldn’t resist it! HAAAAAAA. Cute right?

Hao: …

Mirae: Don’t ‘…’ me, I’ll feel stupid.

Hao: What are you up to now?

Mirae: Argh, why did you have to ask??? Bahhh, math.

Hao: What a coincidence, I’m doing that as well.

Mirae: Help me out would you?

Hao: Sure.

Mirae: Our class has just learnt the quadratic formula thing, and I have yet to memorise that junk, so I’m just following the confusing mumble jumble blindly. There’s this one question that I keep epically failing at. You know when teachers fold your math workbook page when you have to do corrections? This particular page has torn into half because it has been folded too many times.

Hao: Oh no…and what would that question be?

Mirae: 6x² + 5x - 6 = 0

Hao: Did you get (-5 ± 13) / 12 after using the equation?

Mirae: YES!

Hao: Did you stop there?

Mirae: YES!

Hao: No wonder…

Mirae: Why? I’m not supposed to?

Hao: It’s like buttoning your shirt halfway.

Mirae: ert!

Hao: …

Mirae: Okay, okay, sorry. Erm, then what do I do?

Hao: Find the two roots.

Mirae: I’m not gardening, I’m doing math.

Hao: …

Mirae: I’m terribly sorry, please explain.

Hao: To put it simply, find the answers for (-5+13)/12 and (-5-13)/12.

Mirae: OH! NOW I REMEMBER! THERE’S A POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ANSWER TO FIND…

Hao: You’re welcome.

Mirae: Okay, I got 2/3 and -3/2.

Hao: Good. Now put the values into

Mirae: *raises hand,  a(x - x₊)(x - x_-)

Hao: Very good.

Mirae: Thank you. I do have a very good teacher after all, *winks.

Hao: Okay…

Mirae: Then?

Hao: Simplify it. Did you get (3x - 2)(2x + 3)?

Mirae: Not fair, you took like only 3 seconds to type a reply, which meant you took zero seconds to find out the answer. Are you like the top math scorer in class?

Hao: I'm not too sure, I’m in a new school now, so I will have to wait until mid-terms to find out.

Mirae: Bet you were in your old school then.

Hao: Maybe…

Mirae: You don’t have to be so modest. AHH! I GOT THE ANSWER. THANK YOU, HAO, *MUACKS.

*Hao signed out.

Mirae: WHAT!? I’M SORRY, COME BACK!

Mirae: Why am I even talking to myself online?

*Mirae signed out

FYI:

- Kimchi has taken over Young Mi’s job on the magazine-blog article writing.

- Sumire is currently being taken care of by Jaejoong and Kimchi.

- Daddy Jung has gone back to managing the Blitz Empire until Yunho returns. 

- Young Mi's beloved pet Bettas have been donated to an orphanage. 

 I know some of you suffered from a nervous breakdown/seizure/panic attack because I didn't update yesterday and for that I am really sorry.

I was busy in school yesterday, so yeah.  

And I must have caused you guys a migraine with all the math crap (gets a deadly (yet y) glare from Yunnie) in this chapter. 

Comments please and thank you!